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Saturday, January 24, 2009

Dell Inspiron 6400 - The most upgrade proof laptop

I had a Inspiron 6400 for quite a while. In fact from models with Core Duo to Core 2 Duo. I had Windows XP and Windows Vista installed and run from these laptop. I ever had Ubuntu in it for a while.

Recently, I had just tried Windows 7 on it. To my surprise, there is no need to install any additional driver at all. Everything is regconized and installed properly using the default Windows 7 Build 7000 Beta. The only thing that needed update was the Nvidia 7300 Go driver which was installed directly from Microsoft Update.

Nvidia has changed its model from downloading individual drivers to gettign it integrated into Windows Update for Windows 7. For now, anyway.

Dell Inspiron has spanned 3 generations of OS - Windows XP, Windows Vista to Windows 7. I had even the 64 bits edition running on the Core 2 Duo models. I do not think you will find another laptop which could be as compatible. I had a Compaq laptop which doesn't even comes with Winows XP drivers!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh that's cool hear that it will run windows 7 ;I am happy with the Vista ultimate that i am on for now ;my 6400 took 4gb ram even though the dell website says max ram to 2gb ;it does not recognize all of the 4gb but still runs with a 3.25 because the M/B is limited 32bit (dell customer care told me this);it has been running 24x7 for 32 months now;the 9 cells batterys got replaced once though and it does get hot a lot underneath.
Will try to get Windows7 once its out.

Nemesis said...

There should not be a problem with 4GB once you upgrade to a 64 bits OS. Tried.

Amr said...

I have Dell inspiron 6400, i heard from you guys that you are using 4gb ram, while Dell said that this laptop can support a Max 2GB of Ram, you really have 4GB and its working normally? didn't face any problems? can you advice me? i want to have 4GB, buy it or don't?

Anonymous said...

I've been running Windows 7 (Beta, RC and RTM) on my Inspiron 6400 with 4 Gigs or RAM without ANY problems. Still a great laptop.

Luis Ernesto Guarneros Narváez said...

is it posible to make a dell inspiron 6400 run with 4g ram? and bout the video card: i have ati x1300, is there any drive that works on windows 7? please help me.

Nemesis said...

There is no issue running x64with 4GB RAM. Tested it myself. ATI drivers x1300 is supported by Windows 7 since 9.11 drivers:
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonaiw_vista64.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.7&lang=English

Luis Ernesto Guarneros Narváez said...

NemesisV said...
There is no issue running x64with 4GB RAM. Tested it myself.


What i meant is that if its posible to make a dell inspiron 6400 into a 4g RAM, cause it says that jut to 2g, some post says that theres no problem but is there anything i must do beferoe buying thos 2g more? really thanks bout the answer! cya.

Nemesis said...

Nothing much you need to do to upgrade to 4GB, but you probably need to note that the 2GB inside cannot be used because its likely 2x1GB configuration and you will be getting 2x2GB configuration. I had upgraded my 6400 using Kingston DDR2 RAM.

Anonymous said...

I see this is an old post, but have a couple questions on the Inspiron 6400. I'm looking to upgrade to windows 7, upgrade ram and if possible put in a faster (and bigger) hard drive. Any suggestions on which ones would do this. My plan is to install the HD and Ram, then do a clean install of Windows 7.

Nemesis said...

Now would definitely be the best and final chance to upgrade your DDR2 RAM because they are fast running out and prices are going up. Check the RAM inside. If its 2x1GB, then you probably need to pull both out and get 2x2GB. IF the shop allows you to try out, you can try gor 2x4GB. But I doubt it works based on some of the comments in the forum.

For HDD, go for 500GB to be safe. But again, if you can test, try to plug in a 1TB or 750GB. The reason is that these HDD are usually thicker and the housing of the 6400 was based on older model which may not fit. IF you really have cash, go for 120GB SSD instead, but I think its rather not worth it to spend on SSD for this old model. The SSD is smaller in size, but is much lighter and will eat less power, thus your laptop will last longer. It is however, crazily expensive at the moment. But if you think you like Win7 to boot up within 10 sec, then go for it!

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